WASHINGTON Thu Feb 20, 2014 4:36pm EST
(Reuters) - The latest warning to airlines about shoe-bomb threats is a
product of heightened U.S. concern about al-Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate,
whose leaders include a technically-savvy bombmaker, U.S. security sources
said on Thursday.

U.S. Homeland Security authorities on Wednesday issued a new warning about
shoe bombs to airlines which fly from overseas to the United States out of
concern that Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, a Saudi believed to have been behind
failed plots to attack airliners with explosives hidden in shoes or
clothing, may have come up with new bomb design innovations to evade airport
security measures, the sources said.

The sources said the warnings were sent to airlines flying to the U.S. from
around thirty airports in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Among European airports where airlines were requested to take extra security
precautions about possible shoe bombs are Amsterdam's Schiphol, London's
Heathrow and Gatwick, and the airport in Manchester, England, the sources
said.

The warning is not related to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. It
applies to airlines operating flights from specific foreign airports to U.S.
airports, rather than domestic U.S. flights or flights outbound from the
U.S. to foreign destinations, security sources said.

The security warning, sent to both U.S. and foreign carriers flying such
routes, includes instructions for the types of enhanced security checks that
should be undertaken, including detailed recommendations regarding how to
search female passengers, the sources said.

The sources attributed the latest warning to recent intelligence that points
to possible increased threats posed by devices produced by al-Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based affiliate of al-Qaeda's central
organization whose leading members include both Yemeni and Saudi militants.

Alleged bomb-maker Asiri has been described by security officials as one of
the most dangerous and innovative explosives experts ever to join the
al-Qaeda network.

Believed to be in his early 30s, Asiri became a high priority for Western
spy agencies following his alleged role in planning airliner-related attacks
on the United States in 2009 and 2010.

One such plot was a failed bombing of an airliner over Detroit on Christmas
Day in 2009 by a Nigerian militant who had an explosive charge built into
his underpants. Asiri reportedly was wounded in a U.S. drone attack last
year.

The security sources said the latest warning did not mean that the United
States had intelligence indicating a specific shoe bomb plot was in
progress.

It is consistent with concerns security agencies have about militants trying
to smuggle explosives onto airplanes in shoes, cosmetics or liquids. Earlier
this month, U.S. authorities advised airlines flying to Russia for the Sochi
Winter Olympics to watch out for toothpaste tubes that could hold
bomb-making ingredients and could be smuggled through airport security
checkpoints.

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